Raspberry Friands

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Delicate, moist, soft and buttery sponge made with ground almonds, leavened with egg whites and loaded with raspberries. A classy and delicious addition to any afternoon tea, picnic or serve as dessert. I love them as they are, Andrew, as ever, enjoys them with fresh cream or crème fraîche.

Friands are hugely popular in Australia and New Zealand and are extremely similar to the French cake, financier; it is claimed that friands came about when a French chef, working in Australia, made a batch of financier in an oval shaped aspic mould and added some fruit. In France financier are often made with browned butter and rarely have additional ingredients, whereas friands are rarely made with browned butter and more frequently include additional ingredients. Either way, both recipes are absolute gems! Financier recipe coming soon!

These wonderful cakes include fresh raspberries and were cooked in silicone muffin cases, with no paper cases. The recipe is from Mary Berry’s ‘Cook’ recipe book, is very easy and extremely reliable. This recipe is an excellent way of using up leftover egg whites but don’t forget, egg whites can be frozen and this recipe works perfectly with fresh or de-frosted whites.

How to make Raspberry Friands

Collect all your ingrdients together:

• unsalted butter
• almond extract
• icing sugar
• plain/all-purpose flour
• ground almonds
• fine salt
• egg whites, preferably from large eggs
• fresh raspberries
• flaked almonds
• icing sugar, to dust over the top

Now make these gorgeous little cakes:

1. Melt the butter in a pan over a moderate heat. Set aside to cool and then add the almond extract.
2. Meanwhile sieve the icing sugar, flour, ground almonds and salt into a large mixing bowl.
3. In another mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric whisk until they are foamy – they do not need to have reached the soft peak stage.
4. Fold the butter into the dry ingredients until combined.
5. Now add ⅓ of the egg whites into the mixture and fold in.
6. Add remaining egg whites and carefully fold in. Be careful not to over mix.
7. Divide the mixture between the well greased muffin tins – I use an ice cream scoop to do this. It is likely to be a little messy.
8. Add 2 – 3 raspberries on top of each friand and sprinkle over some flaked almonds.
9. Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until firm in the centre.
10. Leave in the moulds for 5 minutes and then remove and set aside to cool on a wire rack.
11. When cool sieve over a fine dusting or icing sugar.

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